


army of one (just me and a drum)

by gruhukens



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gem Fusion, Happy Ending, Soft Angst™
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 17:53:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4401584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gruhukens/pseuds/gruhukens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>There’s something about humanity that she connects with, Ruby thinks. They love the same way she does, none of the clinical detachment of other gems: fiercely, with loyalty and passion. Ruby understands that; she thinks about the way she feels when she looks at Sapphire. She can respect that, she decides. </i> </p><p>OR; the road to the kind of peace the Crystal Gems have is a long and difficult one, especially for Ruby and Sapphire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	army of one (just me and a drum)

**Author's Note:**

> just couldn't leave my space rock wives alone, huh. i'm always wondering. it kind of seems like sapphire's future vision is a lot more pronounced when she's on her own? what abt fusion dances? i'm thinking house for ruby, and maybe swing for sapphire??? and other questions that haunt me late into the night.
> 
> concrit is, as always, fiercely appreciated, since my own four in the morning self is probably not considered a viable beta

When the ships begin to touch down on the ground, Sapphire walks out under a real sky for the first time. It takes no time at all for her to fall irrevocably in love with the Earth, and everything spirals out from there.

 

* * *

 

Ruby barrels into her life before Sapphire even fully Sees her, which she thinks is par for the course, really.

One of the best things about this planet, she initially feels, is the solitude. She doesn’t really interact with other gems, partly because she feels different but also because their unpredictability of their interactions makes her future vision more difficult to handle. It’s simpler being alone: consequences and reactions in a long, logical chain. That's a huge part of why she loves the Earth. So much space. So few gems.

She's not opposed to her future sense as a rule, especially not on Earth. And especially in the first few days, when everything is new, she experiences the novelty of overwhelming future visions that aren't unpleasant: instead of the cool, endless futures of the Gems she works with, she's full up with the beauty of Earth. Everything about this planet is diametrically opposed to Homeworld, this world so full of life and warmth and potential in a way that she's never seen before. Even what her visions don't compare to what it actually feels like to sit under the sun.

Appropriately, it's then she meets Ruby.

She’s not looking for anything particular, just finding space she Saw away from the other gems at Kindergarten, when she breaks through the treeline overlooking a rolling grassland. Just before she looks down she Sees: below her, a small Ruby she doesn’t recognize is rolling head over heels down the hill. Sapphire starts forward automatically to help until she realizes, bizarrely, that the Ruby is doing it purposefully; laughing uproariously, she gets up, skids a fair way up the hill without seeing her, and rolls down again.

Unconsciously, Sapphire brushes aside her fringe to watch the Ruby move. Something about the way the Ruby is laughing makes it the most beautiful thing she’s seen so far on this planet, and she’s seen a lot of beautiful things. 

As she watches, the Ruby stops rolling and ends simply lying where she slides to a halt at the bottom of the hill. The sun throwing shadows of the plants in patterns across her face and body, and her eyes are closed. Sapphire thinks she’s never seen someone so at peace. Fragmented images slide towards her from the Ruby's future: a child. A home. A family. A love. Loss. A war. Herse-

Irrationally, Sapphire stops the vision. For the first time in a long time, she makes a concentrated effort to keep her future vision suppressed. So much of her life, she thinks, is led by the things her visions show her; either she Sees something and avoids it, like she does with other Gems, or she Sees something, she does it, like her whole life is dictated for her. This time, if only once, she would prefer to make her own choice, uninformed, like any other Gem. She thinks about the way Ruby laughed, the happiness she took from the grass and the sun and the Earth. She thinks she doesn't need future sense, this time, to tell her what to do.

She stops thinking about the future. She makes the decision. She moves.

 “I’ve never seen anything like this place before,” she says gently, as she settles by Ruby's feet. “Everything here is so beautiful. Nobody else I've met seems to appreciate that."

At the sound of her voice, Ruby opens her eyes and flips to a crouch, her arms settling automatically into a defensive position. For a long moment, she squints suspiciously at Sapphire in the sunlight. Sapphire, nervous, has to fight to stop herself from fisting her hands into her skirt. My choice, she thinks, just this, my  _choice._

Then, Ruby’s whole face shifts into a smile. The sun above them doesn’t have a patch on Ruby’s face, Sapphire thinks dazedly. She made the right choice. She’s sure of that. She remembers, fleetingly, the love she saw in Ruby's future.

“You're a Sapphire, right?” Ruby says. Even her voice is beautiful. “You like the grass? It’s even softer to lie on than to look at. Nothing on Homeworld smells like this. Can you believe nobody else has tried this yet?”

She holds out a hand, and Sapphire takes it. 

 

* * *

 

Neither Ruby nor Sapphire have visited any planet with an indigenous life form before, and the complexity of humanity fascinates them both. Over time since the landing, they’ve watched the population swell and flux in the area as people migrate from the north. In the warmer months, they skip shifts together at the Kindergarten to watch the fishing villages and summer camps come to life.

There’s something about humanity that she connects with, Ruby thinks. They love the same way she does, none of the clinical detachment of other gems: fiercely, with loyalty and passion. Ruby understands that; she thinks about the way she feels when she looks at Sapphire. She can respect that, she decides.

One day, seated together in the same tall grass, Sapphire describes to Ruby all the things she sees in the world’s future. Her hair is brushed back from her face and her eye shines as she talks about poetry, music and art. It takes her a long, long time to finish.

Ruby is pacing up and down for a long time after she’s done. Her path burns itself into the grass.

“I don’t like it,” she says. “You know what we’re doing in the Kindergarten, Sapphire. We have to stop this.”

“We’re going to kill this planet,” says Sapphire, looking at her hands. “We’ve never been anywhere with this much potential before, and we’re going to destroy it when it’s barely started. I see so many bad things in this planet’s future even without us. Can you imagine how we could help, if we wanted to? But who else would help us?”

Ruby is quiet for a moment. In her mind’s eye, she sees Rose Quartz, heading reluctantly to her shifts at the main Kindergarten, her once-proud back bowed. Ruby can’t remember the last time anyone heard Rose sing, and it’s an open secret that she heads down to mix with people in the villages, unlike anyone else. If anyone else has reservations – if anyone else would help, she thinks, it would be Rose.

Ruby looks at Sapphire. She knows her own impulsivity sometimes makes it hard for Sapphire's future sense, but she likes to think that at this point, Sapphire knows her well enough to not even need it any more.

“We’ll talk to her together,” says Sapphire decisively, like Ruby had spoken everything she was thinking.

“Together,” says Ruby, with a bubble of happiness, and smiles.

 

* * *

 

“I don’t know how this is supposed to work,” says Ruby doubtfully. “I’ve never done it before.”

They’re standing hand in hand in the strawberry fields. Rose Quartz and the main body of her army are preparing for battle some ways behind them, hidden in amongst the leaves. Underneath their feet, Ruby and Sapphire can already see the vines shifting, reacting to Rose’s presence, even as far out as they are.

It’s dangerous for them to be such a distance from the group, especially alone, but Rose has known them long enough to trust them with their own space, and especially with each other’s protection.

“Did you See this us doing this? Is that why you asked me?” asks Ruby. Under her headband, her brow is furrowed.

“Yes,” says Sapphire. “But also because I want to. You know I see a lot of things, Ruby. I choose what to act upon. You helped me realize that. And I choose to act upon this.”

Ruby isn’t often quiet, but when she next speaks Sapphire shifts a little closer to hear.

“I didn’t want to do it like this,” she says. “When we – if we fused – I wanted it to be different from the way everybody else does it, just for battle. I don’t feel like you’re a comrade, Sapphire. You know how I feel. It’s not fair.”

“We don’t have the luxury of time right now. You know that,” says Sapphire, but she doesn’t sound chastising; just sad. “After the war –“

Ruby snorts bitterly.

“ _If_ we survive, after the war, after we’ve hurt hundreds of gems together. You’re the one thing not touched by all of this, Sapphire! I don’t want you to look at me and see the things we’ve done, and I don’t want to spoil what we could be together when we fuse! ”

Sapphire faces her to take both of her hands.

“I would risk it. If it would keep you safe, I’d do anything. That’s our strength, Ruby, and we can use it to protect others as well as ourselves. We have to believe we’re stronger than anything this war throws at us.”

Angrily, Ruby brushes her eyes.

“We can make it different,” Sapphire promises, squeezing Ruby’s hands. “We don’t have to fuse for war. You fight all the time for the things you love. We can fuse for that.”

“It will be same thing in the end,” Ruby says savagely.

Sapphire smiles blandly in a way which immediately makes Ruby very nervous.

“How sure are you about that?” Sapphire asks, and begins to pull Ruby into a gentle sway.

After a few minutes, when Sapphire lifts Ruby from a dip, Ruby looks a little like she’s been hit very hard over the head.

“Does this feel like war to you?” Sapphire asks, as they fall into their rhythm. Ruby’s feet move in complex patterns as her arms twist for stability, while Sapphire flows around her in a series of set patterns, swinging out and back again. They’re still holding hands. A little breathless, Ruby thinks it’s too easy to fall into the spaces Sapphire leaves behind, like they were always meant to do this, and all of a sudden it’s too difficult to be apart. She _pulls,_ Sapphire’s gem pressing against the skin of her palm, and then they dissolve in together.

Very, very slowly, Garnet straightens up.

“What?” says Garnet, twisting her mouth, touching her cheeks, “Ah – oh. Sapphire? I know, Ruby. Do you believe me now? I can see. I can S _ee.”_

She reaches up a hand to touch her top eyelid, gently.

“Nothing in this war is certain. I can See us breaking,” she says. “But Ruby, I don’t want that, and neither do you. I – we don’t.”

She looks at the gems in her palms in the sunlight, glinting like so much treasure. A matched pair.

“We can fight,” she says, turning her wrists over, her hands wrapping themselves in gauntlets. “We can choose to stay together. I can protect us, and all of the rest of them. Can you feel how powerful we are together? I love you. I love you so much. We have to believe we can make this."

Overhead, the Homeworld forces begin to circle like crows.

 

* * *

 

On the battlefield, Garnet splits seven times. Ruby reforms four times, Sapphire twice. Each time, Garnet comes together a little more desperately, a little less joyfully.

“Remember we promised,” whispers Sapphire, as Ruby, dazed, blinks up at her in another new form. “We promised, we would make it certain, we wouldn’t let it break us, we’ll protect them all, we’ll –“

With a fragility that breaks her heart, Ruby cups Sapphire’s face.

“I’ve got you,” she says. “We’ll do it. I’ve got you.”

After a moment, Garnet stands up, flexes her hands, and strides off in the direction of battle again.

 

* * *

 

After the war, Rose doesn’t breach the subject for a long, long time. Garnet understands why, in a roundabout kind of way: in battle, dissolving a fusion meant injury or death, and that’s most or all of the experience Rose has of fusing. She doesn’t know how to explain what it feels like to fuse just because; because of love, because of trust, because of peace.

“Are you happy together?” asks Rose once in a rare moment alone, as they watch Pearl and Amethyst argue together on the beach. “I just don’t want you to feel like you have to be together, especially now we’re so far away from the war. I want all of you to be happy.”

Garnet takes a moment to consider her words before speaking.

“Before the fighting, Ruby and Sapphire made a promise not to let me be ruined by war. That promise is a lot harder than we thought it would be. We wanted to use what we had to protect everyone, and despite everything I did, so many people died.

“But staying like this,” she says, touching her chest, “gives me a chance to make myself as a fusion of peace, rather than one of war. When I stay myself, for every bad memory I have of myself during the war, I gain a new one in peace. Right now I am who Sapphire and Ruby need me to be. Do you understand?”

Rose looks out to Pearl, who is thoroughly berating Amethyst, even as her face unconsciously breaks into a smile. She looks back at the temple they’ve spent so much time crafting into their own space.

“We’re all healing in our own ways,” she says. “And I think yours is better than most.”

 

* * *

 

When Rose breaks the news, predictably, it’s Pearl who takes it the worst. She flees into the temple, and only Amethyst can catch her before the door closes. Garnet could find her, if she wanted, but instead she turns to the cave entrance.

Garnet finds her sitting out by the sea. With the ease of long practise, she splits apart into Ruby and Sapphire, who start off towards Rose as soon as their feet touch the sand. Ruby barrels into her, fiercely clutching her arm. Sapphire follows, settling with ease onto the sand on Rose’s other side and lighting her hand on Rose’s forearm.

After a moment, Ruby lets go and sits herself down. Rose is sitting too close to the sea; the waves wash around their feet. Rose doesn’t seem to have noticed.

“We understand,” Sapphire says. Ruby nods in agreement and draws her knees up to her chest.

“Well, you have had a little time to get used to it,” Rose says. Her beautiful voice doesn’t betray any signs of distress, but she twists her fingers around and around her ringlets unconsciously. “I noticed you’ve been dropping hints to Pearl for some time now. It doesn’t seem to have helped at all. I don’t know how she’s going to come back from this. You should be out finding her instead of sitting with me.”

“We will do,” says Sapphire. “But at the moment, I don’t think really think two other gems who chose love over themselves are the right people to be comforting her. Amethyst’s tough, but she cares, and she understands where Pearl is. It’s enough for Pearl for now. And she’s not the only one who needs support right now.”

Rose worries at her bottom lip.

“We’ve come so far together. I’d understand if you felt betrayed,” she says eventually. Ruby snorts.

“Well, yeah, we do. But that’s not your problem,” she replies.

“That was the point of the war,” adds Sapphire. “We fought so we could make our own choices on this planet. But we’re not at war any more, and you’re not responsible for us now. You get to choose your own kind of peace, like we did. Mine and Sapphire’s – or even Pearl’s – personal feelings don’t come into it, even if we are hurt by your choice.”

Rose looks surprised by the laugh that bubbles out of her.

“I’d forgotten how little the two of you hold back,” she says.

Ruby spreads her hands.

“Where do you think Garnet gets it from?” she says. “There’s no room for dishonesty in a fusion. Isn’t that right, Saph? Sweets? Dearest? Treasure?”

“In the interests of honesty,” says Sapphire mildly, “you should know that we’re never fusing again.”

Ruby flicks water at her; Sapphire turns it into ice, shapes and sends it, shining, to hover as a star a few feet above the darkening sea.

“We’re not at war anymore,” Sapphire repeats. Ruby, on Rose’s other side, is solemn-faced again. “And we’ve had so long with you, Rose. But both of us learned a long time ago: you have to choose your own future. Don't let anyone else decide it for you.”

“Will you look after him?” says Rose. Her hand is placed protectively over her belly.

Ruby snorts again.

“Rose, _please_ ,” she says. “ _Look after_ him? This kid is going to be the most loved kid in the history of this planet.”

“You promise?” says Rose. Her voice trembles.

Trailing a hand reassuring along Rose’s shoulders, Sapphire steps around her and settles her arms around Ruby’s neck. Ruby turns her head up to kiss Sapphire, very gently, on the mouth, and then, as they slide into each other, they disappear.

After a moment, Garnet and Rose sit side by side on the darkening beach. Garnet lays a hand, very deliberately, on Rose’s arm.

“I promise,” she says.

“This child,” says Rose decisively. “He’s going to be part of me and part of the Earth. And you all – you’ll love him, I know you will.”

Garnet touches her glasses just where her third eye sits. Just above the quiet waves she sees the fragments of future, the ones which have been there since the beginning; finally free of the wars that overshadowed them.

A home, the earth, a beautiful small child. Love; loss; a family, changed; and Ruby and Sapphire through it all, still together, still choosing each other, still in love.

“I already do,” she says.


End file.
